Forum:Ethics of linking non-public domain material
I'm wondering if it's right (or even legal) to be linking some of the stuff we are linking. I'm mostly thinking of PDFs of publications which are still under copyright. I haven't bothered much with manuals, since they facilitate the games, weren't intended to be money-makers on their own, and Origin has released a lot of that to the public anyway. But I see that the cluebooks are available as PDFs. That strikes me as something that maybe we shouldn't be doing. I see that this section on copyright doesnt deal w/this, since it doesn't take into account the ethics/legality of linking illegal material. Do we link any so-called "abandonware"? That's a term which gives the specious impression that a product is no longer patented. I guess that covers all the illegal material that we do or might link: PDFs of independent publications and abandonware. AngusM 05:31, September 10, 2010 (UTC) : We don't link any abandonware, as far as I know, and I agree that we shouldn't. As for the cluebooks, I don't know. I don't really see any harm in it, and I don't really see any ethical concerns either since they aren't sold and will never ever be sold ever again, but I've always been a sucker for Compassion. I mean, I like Justice too, don't get me wrong, but we all know what happens when virtue becomes law! --Warder Dragon 08:19, September 10, 2010 (UTC) ::Yep. The cluebooks are long out of circulation and will never get a reprint. I sincerely doubt EA even any longer knows or cares about them. Therefore I don't see any promblem with it.--Tribun 11:52, September 10, 2010 (UTC) ::As far as I'm aware, we don't link to any electronic copies of the Ultima games, thus no abadonware, so that's a step in the right direction. The cluebooks and manuals, well, they're not in the public domain yet, and won't be for quite a few years to come, so it isn't legal to be hosting those, any way you look at it. Still, I echo Tribun's comments. It is highly unlikely that anyone who holds the rights to the cluebooks are going to be taking issue with us linking to them any time soon. And some of them have been out of print for 20+ years, and I can't conceive of them being reprinted. Like was said above, we're linking to copyrighted material, not providing it ourselves, so that's a step in the right direction. I say just let sleeping dogs lie. Dungy 12:37, September 10, 2010 (UTC) :::I agree with Warder: the law is an ass. However, I don't see this so much an issue of keeping our asses covered, as just the sort of image we want for the Codex. I think EA could call this entire site a "dilution of trademark" (although they'd be insane to) but nearly all the material we have I think fits in with the spirit of the Codex. I don't think including PDFs to the manual, or MIDIs of the music is a problem for that either. PDFs of stand-only publications (I shouldn't have said "independent" before) I feel goes too far. :::It seems we all agree that linking abandonware is bad. Maybe we should put that into policy. So why is abandonware bad, but cluebook PDFs not? Cluebooks are just as abandoned, and I should think this stuff is as available as other out-of-print Ultima hardcopies I've found on Amazon or eBay. :::BTW, linking might make us less culpable than hosting, but I don't think that eliminates culpability. AngusM 17:38, September 10, 2010 (UTC)